


King of Dragons Pt 2.5 (Alternative Ending)

by kirkwords



Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending - Race To The Edge, Episode: s08e12-13 King of Dragons, F/M, Gen, Graphic Description, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Whump, Hurt/Cumfort, Recovery, cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 06:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29994993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirkwords/pseuds/kirkwords
Summary: An alternate ending to the season 6 finale of Race To The Edge, written in snippets from multiple perspectives.
Relationships: Astrid & Fishlegs & Hiccup & Ruffnut & Snotlout & Tuffnut, Dagur the Deranged & Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Heather, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Stoick the Vast, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Kudos: 13





	King of Dragons Pt 2.5 (Alternative Ending)

**Author's Note:**

> After 3 years since the season finale, and almost an entire year in the making - my most prized writing piece is here! Enjoy!! (or don't, I'm not your parent)

He was still hanging by his prosthetic. His arm began to ache. There was no ledge for him to grab onto to get out, and the King of Dragons had returned to its cave, deep below the island. Hiccup punched at the wall, his body growing weaker, hoping to carve out some kind of ledge. He saw Inferno’s blade, broken off and lodged into the wall. 

Using it as leverage, Hiccup pushed himself to flat ground. He crawled along the ground, to Toothless, to anyone outside these blasted caves. He was exhausted, every bone and muscle in his body screaming in agony. He saw blood drip onto the icy floor, from his face, his body, he had no idea. His eyes started to close. He was certain he was going to die down here; a failure. Without his dragon, without saving the King’s egg. Only one word came to his mind as he used the last of his energy to throw himself onto his back. Pain shot through his body. He heard a plasma shot in the distance. 

"Dad…”

Dagur waved off his ships, the Dragon Riders safely onboard. He was sending them back to Berk to recover before heading back out to Dragons’ Edge, despite their protests. Hiccup was the only one not on board. His brother hadn’t returned from under the island, and no one could find him. They had caught Krogan on the way out and locked him up, but he didn’t answer anybody. 

“Sir, we found an egg.” Dagur turned to his soldiers. Sure enough, they were holding a large egg. It was large and pale, dark spines sticking up to the top, like a dangerous pinecone. 

“The King of Dragons’ egg? Where did you find it?” Dagur asked tentatively, approaching the egg. 

“The Night Fury gave it to us, before running off.” The colour faded from Dagur’s face. 

“And you didn’t think to _FOLLOW HIM?_ ” He screamed. Snatching the egg from them, he pointed to the cavern entrance. “Find that Night Fury! And do not return to me until you do.” He commanded. The Berserkers nodded and sprinted off. Mala approached her fiance.

“Still no sign of Hiccup?” She asked, her voice low as she saw the despair on his face. 

“Nothing. I don’t want to lose him Mala,” He admitted, looking her in the eyes. “I don’t want to do that to Heather, or Stoick, or Astrid. Hell, even the Greek Chorus,” He continued, laughing to himself weakly. “He means so much to those people. I can’t fail them now.” 

“We’ll find him, brother,” Heather said, dismounting from Windshear. She pulled her brother into an embrace. “If it’s the last thing we do.”

“No stragglers?” Dagur asked his sister. Heather had taken it upon herself to do frequent patrols around Berserker Island, in case any Hunters decided to double back. She shook her head and fastened her axe to her back. The trio made their way into the village, to help with the rebuilds.

“Astrid, please stop pacing. Dagur will find him” 

Snotlout leaned against the doorway of the room the Riders were sharing on their journey back to Berk. The twins and Fishlegs sat on their stretchers, overlooking the conversation in silence. 

“What if he doesn’t? What then?” Astrid snapped back, stopping to look at Snotlout. “We don’t know where he is? He could be dead for all we know!”

Ruffnut scoffed. She got to her feet and pulled her friend into a hug. The other Riders joined, as they all stood in silence, holding each other. They never usually expressed physical affection for each other. It was always unspoken, in subtle nods and teamwork; but there always comes a time after a harrowing experience where something outside of the norm is comforting. 

Heather had been told by her brother to quit the search and head home hours ago, but she wasn’t going to give up on Hiccup that easily. The sun was setting over Berserker Island, and Heather was heading back below into the caves. Windshear’s metal tail spines brushed against the pale blue icy floor, making the cave echo. The duo had been down here so many times, trying every last path and cavern, to no avail. After the third or maybe fourth pass of an ice wall, Heather noticed something sticking out the other side of the ice. A red arrow. Hunters. There must have been a way to get back there. 

“Windshear, get us through there.” She said calmly, wielding her axe, just in case there were any Hunters still there, and she needed to fight her way through. With two quick flashes of Windshear’s tail, the wall of ice came crashing down. Toothless was curled into a ball, staring at her. After a small pause, he uncurled himself, and stood over to the side, revealing a sight Heather had prayed to the gods to never see. 

“Hiccup…”

He was laying there, motionless on his back, surrounded in a small pool of blood. His face was a crusty red, save for a few clear lines coming down from his eyes. As Heather looked closer, she could see his fingers twitching, but she couldn't tell if it was voluntary. 

Heather raced to his side, putting her ear to his chest to hear anything. A slow rhythmic pulsing came to her ear; he was alive, but he might not be for long. She had to get him out of here and fast. With the dragons' help, she managed to get him off the ground and onto Toothless' back. She found herself exhausted, as she looked at her hands, now tinted purple from the blood and ice that had stuck him to the ground. Windshear led the way out of the cave, cutting and blasting through ice walls that blocked the quickest way out. 

"DAGUR! BROTHER!" Heather called out as she left the caves, her throat aching from crying for Hiccup. A Berserker guard came running to her. His face grew pale with each step, taking in the sight of the wounded Rider. "Wake my brother, I need to get him to the healers as quickly as possible" she managed to get out. 

The guard rushed to the Chief’s house, while Heather and the dragons made their way to the healers’ huts. Windshear rushed ahead to wake one of the healers. By the time Heather and Toothless managed to stumble through the door, half the islands healers were awake and ready to work. Heather found herself being escorted away from Hiccup onto a bed. Too tired to fight back, she complied and lay down to rest. She fell asleep to the sounds of panic and dragon calls.

The reunion on Berk was bittersweet. Stoick was awake and running everything from his bed. Astrid's heart broke when his face dropped, not seeing his son among the heroes that had arrived home. To avoid being the centre of attention for the rest of the day, the Riders went to the Academy. 

"I feel so useless here," Tuffnut whined, swinging Macey the Second around (though her actual name was Daisy). "We should be out there with our dragons helping with the war cleanup."

"You heard Dagur. We're staying on Berk until we know the waters are safe of any Hunters." Fishlegs interjected. Snotlout scoffed at him. 

"Dagur, shmagur. What does he know? He's not our chief. We'd be out there right now if Astrid hadn't told Stoick what Dagur had said anyway."

"What was I meant to do, lie?” Astrid snapped back. She had been the most on edge after the battle, though no one could fault her for that. “I can't exactly do that to my future father-in-law, Snotlout."

Everyone except Snotlout muttered in agreement. 

Heather awoke to a quiet infirmary. Sitting up, she looked around. Hiccup was lying on the bed next to her. She could just see his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths; so he was alive.

“Thank Thor.”

They had cleaned all the blood off of him, and removed his armour and tunic, probably torn and blood soaked. His body looked frail and cold, as if a small bump from the wrong angle could send him flying and snap him in half. 

“You’re awake.” Heather turned to see her brother walking towards her, pulling her into a hug. She returned the embrace, her shaking breaths eliciting a longer hug. 

“Is he..?” 

“Hiccup is okay. The healers say he’s in a stable condition but he’ll need to sleep for at least the next few days before he’ll wake up.” 

Heather looked back to Hiccup. Dagur sighed and sat at the edge of her bed, occupying his hands with his armour. 

“He’s lucky you got to him when you did, you know?. Any longer and he might have…”

“Stop. I know.”

Dagur was called back out into the village soon after to deal with the cleanup, leaving Heather alone again with her thoughts, and Hiccup. What if he didn’t wake up? He had almost seemed dead when she’d found him, but by some miracle of the gods, he was breathing. She knew Hiccup was a fighter, everyone did. The shit this kid had gone through in the past four years, some of it by the hands of her own blood, was enough for anyone to fall asleep and not wish to wake up, but he was a fighter, and he had things and people to stay awake and fight for. Heather watched as he flexed his hand, painfully groaning at the feeling, but his eyes didn’t open. A few more days, Dagur had said. Only a few more days. 

A week passed on Berk with no word from anyone. The Dragon Riders grew restless, for once finding themselves with nothing to do, and no leader to fall behind or in the twins’ case, annoy relentlessly. Sure they had Astrid, but she was as downcast as the rest of them, unwilling to do anything other than wanting to know if Hiccup was alive. None of them had really experienced the end of a war, being thrown into other jobs and adventures after the Berserker War. This time was different, their enemies all dead or missing, not in prison, and far more dire consequences as a whole just beyond the Isle of Berk and its inhabitants. 

“I just don’t get it,” Snotlout said, wandering into the Academy, Hookfang on his heels. “We should have heard something from someone, anyone by now.” 

“Sure, the waters might be calm here, but they might not be further out near the Hunters bases.” Fishlegs replied, leaning against Meatlug, and translating projections from the Dragon Eye 2 into the Book of Dragons. With all the new lenses they had scoured from Johann’s ships, Fishlegs had been busy at work, getting any new scrap of information he could from them. It was just the two of them, the twins and Astrid off on patrol or with their families, Snotlout didn’t really know, or care. 

“Do you think he’s…” Snotlout began, but Fishlegs cut him off, almost like his friend had deliberated over the exact same question that was about to leave his mouth. His tone was stern and sure. 

“If Hiccup was dead, none of this waiting would matter to the Berserkers,” He said, “Dagur would have sent a message to Stoick immediately, no matter the risk.”

“I guess you’re right,” Snotlout slumped down against Meatlug, and flicked through a few loose pages, covered in a mix of handwritings. Fishlegs’ covered most of it, with some in a script he didn’t recognise, possibly Bork the Bold’s. 

“I never thought I’d miss him, ya know?” 

“What do you mean?” Fishlegs had not looked up from his work since Snotlout had arrived, but his responses were enough for him to not feel so alone.

“I don’t know. I guess I mean…” Snotlout took a second to think and arrange his words, “When you see someone almost all day everyday for years, It’s a weird feeling not seeing them for even a few days. You sort of become accustomed to at least a small ‘hello’ each day.” Fishlegs muttered in agreement. Snotlout shut his eyes and drifted into a nap, listening to his friend cursing out some old Dragon Hunter for his business practices, and atrocious handwriting. 

Everything hurt. Every tiny muscle movement, every breath. Hiccup pried his eyes open to just stare at the ceiling. He had been doing it for days now, staring and thinking. He knew he was still on Berserker Island, he had heard Dagur bossing people around what he assumed was yesterday from outside wherever he was. He could feel a little more of his own body every day. Fingers, toes, he could feel the breeze on his face, his torso. Today he could finally feel the blanket over his legs, heavy and warm. He did have to remind himself that the feeling of his left foot would never return. 

It still hurt to move. Maybe it would forever. He would be stuck in one place forever, just like Johann. The memory of the merchant’s final moments flickered in Hiccup’s mind. So hell-bent on a single dragon, he was ready to send a spear through the skull of a teenager. The anger twisted into Johann’s face sent a shiver up Hiccup’s body, causing him to groan. His vocal chords screamed in pain. They were completely shot and dry. He tried to swallow, but that hurt as well. He forced Johann out of his mind, and thought of his friends again, as he shut his eyes to rest. He prayed to the gods that they were okay, that they had survived. He had seen them in his dreams, alive and well on Berk. Hiccup had a feeling that those dreams weren’t lying to him. He would see them again. Sooner rather than later, he thought to himself as his subconscious took over. 

It had been a month, with no news from Berserker Island. The Outcasts had remained around the place, with Alvin doing some of the more physical Chief work that Stoick couldn’t. The whole village was worried for their heir, but many refused to show it directly. At least, they refused to be around Astrid, which only made her feel worse. Everyone seemed to walk around day to day like nothing was different, and that infuriated her. Why couldn’t they show that they cared? He was their Prince, he had put his life on the line for all of them. He had dared the Red Death, the Submaripper, not to mention the entire Dragon Hunter army for them, and in return, the people of Berk didn’t share so much as a passing ‘Hello’ to any of the Riders.

Sat up on her parents’ roof, she stared out at the horizon. No one could find her up here, no one bothered to look up long enough, but Astrid was always looking up. Hoping that one of these days, a Night Fury would soar across the water towards them. She thought she had seen Toothless yesterday, but it had just been Hookfang on Snotlout’s patrol shift.

Hiccup was standing now, even walking, but only for short periods of time. Heather was helping him stay up, keeping him from going face first into the dirt. The steps were slow, but no one was complaining. All of the Berserkers had been very kind and lenient towards him, the children of the village leaving him flowers and hand drawn cards at his bedside. He had tried to decipher the handwritten scribbles, to thank them for the kind wishes, but after a couple of glances, Dagur told him not to bother. The nurses and older women were the kindest, Hiccup noticed, caring for him like he was their kid. He supposed it was nice, having never really had a maternal figure in his life that he could remember, bar his future mother-in-law, but even then, he only ever saw her in passing. 

“Ow.” Hiccup stumbled forward as Heather yanked on his arm. He was walking fine, but that didn’t mean a good pull wouldn’t hurt. 

“Sorry,” Heather slowed down, having gotten lost in her own mind. “Excited about dinner.”

Hiccup chuckled under his breath.

“Yeah, food does sound good right now. I miss Berkian cooking though…”

“That is also very nice. Well, not your prison food, but I digress.”

The duo shared a laugh thinking back on Heather’s first arrival on Berk, as Windshear opened the door to the Chief’s house. Dagur had insisted that Hiccup have his last dinner on Berserker Island with him, as a family. His brother had refused to take no for an answer when Hiccup had explained it was fine if he just stayed in the infirmary and rest. ‘You can rest here’ had been Dagur’s response. So Hiccup now found himself at the table, Heather having moved to cooking. Mala sat with him, sharpening her sword with a whetstone. She had not left Berserker Island after Hiccup had regained consciousness, but he was sure she had arrived much sooner than that. Dagur strolled in the door, a piece of paper in his hand. He waved it next to his head, taking his seat next to his bride-to-be. 

“Received word from Alvin.”

“Alvin?” Hiccup looked up. Why was Alvin sending letters to Dagur? The Outcasts hadn’t been hit hard by Johann. Why hadn’t his father written across? The possibilities as to why not made Hiccup’s stomach sink until Dagur spoke again.

“Yup. Outcasts are stationed at Berk until Stoick’s back on his feet. Something tells me he’s been trying to send these letters out for a while, it took a minute to figure out what in Thor’s name he was talking about. Some kind of code he made up.” Dagur smiled, and tossed the letter across the table. Hiccup’s eyes scanned the paper, Alvin’s handwriting almost indistinguishable. 

“Is Dad okay?”

“I think so,” Dagur sighed, scratching his chin, misplacing the patchy hairs of his beard. “He would have said something otherwise I’d hope.”

“Alvin has never been a very great communicator though,” Heather interjected, placing a large plate of chicken legs on the table. “Trust me, I would know.”

“Is it safe now?”

“Well that Terror, while exhausted didn’t seem to have been tampered with, so no one’s tried to intercept it.”

“Tomorrow?”

“We’ll see how you are, but hopefully yes.” 

Hiccup sighed in relief. He didn’t quite know how long he had been away from home, but he was ready to go back. To his dad, to Astrid. He would be home, and could put all of this war nonsense and responsibility behind him for now. 

The second reunion after the war was far more joyous than the first. Hiccup’s reunion with the Riders had been long. The teens shook and held each other close, ecstatic that they were all home and well. His reunion with his father was longer. Stoick had refused entry to anyone for an hour or so after he had laid eyes on his boy. Hiccup confided in Astrid later that evening that they had just laid there in silence, Stoick still unable to move most of his body, but holding his son in fear of nearly losing him again. 

Hiccup had hidden himself up in his room to rest and evade people after Alvin needed his father, but that didn’t stop Stoick from letting the Riders up there to see him. Ruff and Tuff sat on his desk, shuffling papers out of the way to not destroy anything. Snotlout shared the stone slab on the floor with Toothless, and Fishlegs sat at the foot of the bed. Astrid curled up next to the healing viking, her head placed gently on his chest, listening to him breathe. 

“Ya know H,” Tuff started, shoving his sister across the desk to sit himself down, “You really fucking scared us there.” Hiccup shifted his weight, inhaling sharply. 

“Yeah, didn’t really mean to do that…” 

“So what happened? What was down there?” Fishlegs asked, bordering on impatience. He had clearly been excited to hear about the King of Dragons. 

“She was protecting her egg,”

“Oh! Oh, my Thor. The King of Dragons' egg?” Fishlegs was over the moon. “Hiccup, what did the King of Dragons look like?”

“I never even saw it, but it saved me.” Hiccup looked over all of his friends' faces, glowing with happiness. “It saved us all.”

“What about Fenris? Did he help?” Tuff piped up. 

“This has his fingerprints all over it.” Ruffnut added, muttering an apology after knocking off a small trinket off the desk onto the floor. 

“Uh, sure. Why not?”

  
  


After his care on Berserker Island, Hiccup didn’t take long to get back to his normal self. He spent most days wandering around the village for his friends, and listening to exaggerated stories of the war the Thorstons were giving to the children. Eventually it was time to go back to the base for one final hurrah before they inevitably decided to go back to Berk permanently. 

The dragons were all packed down at the Academy, and Hiccup had just managed to slip out of a fifth hug from his father.

“Dad, I’ll be back soon. Yes, I’ll write to you!” He had called out the door as he ran from the Great Hall. He skidded down the stairs, and landed on Toothless’ back, heading right for the Academy. At the sight of the black dragon, the others took flight. Hiccup had never been happier as he looked to his friends, excited for another adventure. 

“Right gang, who wants to race to the Edge?”


End file.
